The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of America’s most horrific industrial accidents, happened 100 years ago today, on March 25, 1911. Though New York City’s fire department arrived on the scene within two minutes of the call, the fire at this “modern” high rise at the corner of Washington Pl. and Greene St. still claimed the lives of 146 people, most of them young women and teenage girls. Some were burned, some died of smoke inhalation, some were crushed pushing for the exits, some fell from a faulty fire escape, and some jumped nine stories in an attempt to escape the flames.

It was a catastrophic, once-in-a-lifetime failure of what were considered more than ample emergency response systems. No one could have possibly anticipated. . . .

At 4:45pm EDT, approximately the time of the fire, church bells will be rung here in the city and across the country. Please take a minute to listen and reflect on the lives lost a century ago, and the rights gained since.

30 Responses to The Party Line – March 25, 1911

I was interested to learn that the Asch Building is now the Brown Building and is still standing, is in use and has been designated a national historic landmark building. I guess it’s a good thing Paladino wasn’t elected or it would have already been razed to the ground. Thanks for covering this Gregg.

When ever anyone proclaims the virtue of the “free market” this is what people should think of. The unfettered, unregulated free market resulted in the deaths of young women and children. The market certainly wasn’t free for them. They paid with their lives.

Check out the Maddow piece from last night (as opposed to the Obama is reluctant for this war which was a joke).

She showed that the first deep water drilling since BP Gulf destruction was to BP (BP owned about 45% of the company). That Obama’s dept that approves has also said that blowout preventor essentially fail since when it tries to chop all the lines/systems are out of place due to the disaster.

Then the kicker, the Obama dept said that they are only approving due to all the lessons learned an changes since BP Gulf destructions….BUT
- Their recovery plan that was approved is dated SEP-2009… BEFORE BP destroyed the Gulf
- and as noted the same dept said the primary saftey system (blow out prevent) does not work.

Add that the rush (or rush after a temporary false delay) to approve Nuke plants. Obama could be in the unique position to:
- approve drilling and have a disaster
- then approve more drilling, and of course there will be another disaster
- have a nuke disaster in Japan
- approve/extend more nuke plant with the same design
- and have another nuke disaster (possiblt in CA this time)

… all the while some are making great bank money on these projects, but you can rest assured they are not the ones who crawl through nuke infested water and up a ladder to check the values that are leaking nuke material.

They allow things that are deadly wrong (for others) – to make money (for themselves). Oh, and as a double bonus:
- tax money goes to help them make profits (from others)
- when disaster strikes they are too big to fail (they must keep making money), so more taxes to clean up the mess (again from others)
- for an extra treat consider the opportunity cost lost to invest that money in what could help people, and shocker here – still make money

The attempted actions of the new Gov of Maine is beyond ugly and demands action. In fact it is the kind of thing when these ham hands are taking money and using it to beat down everyone – this kind of insult can provoke people to finally take action. At some point its going to provoke people to realize they are being dictated too, not lead.

The sad thing is the sad thing with all of these cases – its a no lose for them. They can win eleaction and be political suicide bombers – only they don’t get 40 virgins in heaven – they get a $4M/year position, steak & wine every night, and all the escorts they can sneak by their spouse.

Another of those lessons ‘we’ have to keep learning,
indeed.
To commemorate the Triangle anniversary,
check out this powerful documentary on factory labor in China. There is slavery in the world today.
Thx, Clinton, et. al for all the ‘free trade’.
We are all complicit in this clusterfuck:

Thanks so much for posting this! I used to work at Workers United which represents garment workers. One of the most moving things every spring was the Triangle Fire memorial (thanks for promoting it). At it the descendants of survivors and other garment center workers mingled with Chinese-American immigrants who work or recently worked in NYC’s garment shops, African-American and Caribbean American dry cleaning workers and just a whole rainbow of working people fighting for union rights.
It was also super upsetting but inspiring.

I wrote something up quick for the Writers Guild of America, East’s blog if you are interested http://www.wgaeast.org/blog/?p=318
Some folks from my union will be sending me photos to post of the rally at the building site.

I recorded a recent PBS documentary on the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and it is still sitting their, in my film library, unwatched. It is unwatched because I don’t have the stomach to watch this terrible event, knowing that more will follow, even today, after all this time. More will follow.

The one that springs to mind is the chicken pluckers at a plant in one of the Carolinas. The management locked the back door. A fire. The workers died. It was in the late ’80s or early 90s.

The fine announced by the Labor Department or OSHA or someone else was the “biggest” in history. Huge publicity about the fine.

The company declared bankruptcy. I don’t think that they ever paid a dime. I think the owners walked away with no criminal or civil penalties.

I worked in a plywood mill in the 1960s. The owner had all of the doors locked or a thug to watch the openings where the wood came in or went out to be shipped. Where we were at would was not safe. If a fire had broken out, we would all have died.

“Once-in-a-lifetime”? “No one could have anticipated”? I trust you’re being facetious. The disaster was preventable and it was probably foreseen. No one in positions to do anything about conditions in the factory cared.

I’m thinking about your self destructive love and compulsive obsessive endorsement of the CRIME FAMILY you keep supporting and the free market that means stealing (a crime) our jobs (your trade policy) to make Chinese people work for free. Free market = work for free. Working for free, 7 days a week is slavery. In 1865 the 13th Amendment was written to abolish slavery.

I’m thinking about buying crap that was made by slaves while American workers are being fired and thrown out of their homes because Obama and Hilda Solis want more bribes from SEIU and corporate crooks who get there kickbacks from Obama and the Democratic CRIME FAMILY you love so much.

I’m thinking about how easy it would be for FDL to take a stand to strongly recommend to every FDL member to get off their ass next week to register in the Green Party.

I’m thinking about asking FDL to publish a list for all FDL members to keep a running tally after they registered in the Green Party.

I’m thinking about having FDL write a letter that we can submit to our entire list of email addresses to get a movement that will attract the 98% of Americans who want to put an end to the privileged CRIME FAMILY that controls tax loopholes, job destruction, wars, and a budget that will destroy our currency.

You know the list Gregg. I’m not going to keep listing all the crimes that your wonderful Democratic CRIME FAMILY commits.

Then send Obama and Hilda Solis a nice thank you note.
Roger Altman, yesterday recommended for Americans go back to school.
That’s Obama’s economics adviser. He said its going to take 5 years for 8,000,000 people to get back to work.

In the mean time while Roger, Barry, and Hilda are living like kings the 8,000,000 Americans can live in their cars and park at Walmart so they can brush their teeth after they steal a tube of tooth paste.

I recommend a Federal crime. The food’s pretty good in the Fed joints. I know from being there 9 years. Read my book titled
JUST CAUSE JUST FACTS.

NYC still has sweat shops. I know because I used to live by a lot of them (Sunset Park). And, of course, one could see the women working at their machines in shops located to the right of the Manhattan Bridge as one traveled from Brooklyn to Manhattan. I would also marvel at the stamina of those folk who had to have worked 91 hours or more per week at the local takeout shops. A friend got off the boat, so to speak, got a job busing tables near Wall Street and lived with about 15 other men in a small apartment in the Lower East Side. He worked long hours, of course. He also had a PhD from a ancient and prestigious European University.

These stories express the essence of capitalism: Labor is a commodity which Capital attempts to exploit to the extent that it can.

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